Surgery Consult

We met with Dr. Michael Collins today. He will be the cardiothoracic surgeon that will remove Rob's right middle lobe.

He looked at the scans and biopsy results and came in to talk to us. He told us that Rob should do well with the surgery. Because Rob already had one lobe removed, his left lung is "primed" or is compensating for the loss. Now that he will be down to 1 1/3 lungs (hehehe) he should be ok with the surgery and recovery - it will not be as huge a shock as before to his body.

He is planning on removing the scar tissue from the last surgery and then he will remove the offending lobe. Additionally, after he removes the lobe, he will juggle everything that is left in Rob's cavity to take out the node (medical speak for the thingy that may or may not be cancer) in his mediastinum (the place by his heart). The doctor didn't seem worried about getting to the spot; it will be difficult, but it can be done. We asked him if he was concerned about the other node (the one not in his lung) and he said that he was, but he will remove it. A pathologist will be there at that point in the surgery to take a look at the two nodes to see if 1) the margins are clean (did they get it all??) and 2) whether the node in the mediastinum is cancer.

The surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, next week - we don't know which hospital yet. It will either be at IMED or LDSH. We will find out tomorrow.

Maybe I should have called this blog "lobeless in salt lake" instead of "hairless." Hmmmm. I recalled his last experience with the whole losing all his hair thing when creating the name of the blog.

We will not know until after his surgery and the Tumor Review Board looks at his case to see whether they (a group of docs) think his treatment should be.